Currently, many people purchase items through an electronic commerce marketplace and have those items delivered to a customer specified delivery destination, such as their home. Items may be picked from inventory locations, packaged and shipped to the customer specified delivery location. Currently, shipment of the item may involve several different carriers that transport the item from one location to another as the item progress through a transportation network toward the ultimate delivery destination.
Each time the package exchanges hands between carriers and/or at different locations, one or more agents typically handle the item, or the package containing the item, and/or wait from another agent with which they are to exchange the item. With each exchange or handling of the item, the cost of delivery of the item increases, the opportunity for error or misdirection of the item increases, and the overall time required to deliver the item to the final delivery destination increases.